Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/245

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Lucas
239
Lucas

lished some memorial verses on the death of Sir Edwin Landseer. He died at Whitby, Yorkshire, in September 1880 (Times, 17 Sept.; Academy, 1880, ii. 221).

[Times. 6 May 1874; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists: Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong; L'Estrange's Life of Mary R. Mitford: Graves's Dict. of Artists; information from Arthur Lucas, esq., and G. Scharf. C.B., F.S.A.]

L. C.

LUCAS, LOUIS ARTHUR (1851–1876), African traveller, born on 22 Sept. 1851. was the only surviving son of Philip Lucas of Manchester. He was educated at University College School in Gower Street, London, and at University College, where he showed a marked taste for scientific subjects. An early taste for travel and scientific enterprise was developed by a trip to Switzerland in 1870. He visited the United States in 1872, and through the good offices of George McClellan, who gave him letters of introduction to the commandants of the flirts in the west, he wag enabled to extend his tour to Nebraska, where he shot buffalo and dear, and puzzled the Indian chiefs by his feats of legerdemain. At the end of 1873 he started for Egypt to recruit his health, became interested in the country, and during enforced convalescence of many months after an attack of typhoid fever occupied himself with scientific studies. In July 1875 he announced his intention of devoting himself to African exploration, intending in the first instance to explore the Congo. His friends, supported by Sir Henry Rawlinson, remonstrated vainly against an adventure so unsuited to a weak constitution. He organised an expedition independently of the Geographical Society, of which he was an associate. He left London on 2 Sept. 1875, and made his way to Cairo, where he remained several weeks learning Arabic and engaging servants. He obtained a firman from the khedive after a personal interview, authorising him to enlist and train soldiers for escort, and from all quarters he received cordial assistance. He travelled by way of Suez, Suakim, and Berber to Khartoum, where he arrived at the end of January 1876. There he stayed for nearly three months making preparations for an absence of several years. In April he left Khartoum, and with a steam-vessel lent by Colonel Gordon ascended the White River as far as Lardo, where he met Gordon. Gordon would not permit him to go on to what he said would be certain destruction, but advised him to return to Khartoum and thence return by way of Suez to Zanzibar, there to reorganise his expedition, and make a fresh start under better auspices and in a less deadly climate. Lucas then accompanied Gordon to the Albert Nyanza, and navigated the northern portion of the lake in the first steamboat ever launched on its waters. In August he went to Khartoum intending to carry out Gordon's plan. He fell ill on the way, and was detained at Khartoum by fever and dysentery for two months, but reached Suakim by way of Berber era 18 Nov. He embarked at once on a steamboat for Suez, but died on 20 Nov. 1870. He was buried at Jeddah.

Lucas went out with a prepared list of queries furnished by the Anthropological Institute. He sent an interesting letter to the president. Colonel A. Lane-Fox, dated from Khartoum 11 March 1876, accompanied by a short vocabulary of Bishereen words and some sketches: the vocabulary was published in the 'Journal' of the institute (vi. 191-4).

[Sir Rutherford Alcock's Address in Proc. of Roy. Geogr. Soc. xxi. 418-21, 465; Athenæum, 9 Dec. 1876 p. 766, 23 Dee. 1876 p. 838; Times, 25 Dec. 1876. p. 4. col. 4; Jewish Chronicle, 15 Dec. 1876. p. 566.]

G. G.

LUCAS, RICHARD, D.D. (1648–1715), prebendary of Westminster, son of Richard Lucas, was born at Presteign in Radnorshire in 1648, and on 3 March 1664-5 he entered Jesus College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1668, and M.A. 1672, when he received holy orders. For some years he was master of the free school at Abergavenny. Having acquired some reputation as a preacher, he was chosen rector of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, in 1678, and lecturer of St. Olave's, Southwark, in October 1683. In 1691 he received the degree of D.D., and in 1697 he was appointed to a prebend at Westminster. Before this date his sight, which had always been defective, entirely failed him. But the vigour and activity of my mind, and the health and strength of my body (being now in the flower of my age) continuing,' he wrote, 'unbroken, I thought it my duty to set myself some task which might serve at once to divert my thoughts from a melancholy application on my misfortune, and might be serviceable to the world,' The result of his determination was the most popular of all his works, an 'Enquiry after Happiness.' He died at Westminster on 29 June 1715, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Lucas enjoyed a high reputation both a preacher and a writer, and also as a man of piety. He was one of the good men who used to visit the exemplary Lady Elizabeth Hastings [q. v.] at Ledsham. Yorkshire. His 'Enquiry after Happiness,' the work of his blindness, appeared in two volumes, 1685. It was divided into three parts, the first showing 'the possibility of obtaining happiness,' the